Contrary to fathers' rights propaganda, father perpetrators (along with stepdads and caretaker boyfrends) dominate the most vicious crimes against children: sexual assault, abusive head trauma, murder-suicides, crimes involving gun violence, and other similar forms of physically violent/fatal child abuse. And as more dads are providing child care (either because mom is working and can't find other care, or because dads are increasingly getting unsupervised visitation/custody through the family courts), more dads are are being found guilty of basic child abuse and neglect as well.

10/25/15 -Because of severe time constraints, we are no longer able to do regular updates at Dastardly Dads. We will occasionally post articles on general studies on child abuse/domestic violence, news pieces involving abusive fathers in custody/visitation situations. We wil also be updating the Killer Dads and Custody lists, while looking for a better, more accessible platform for the data.

7/11/16 - We started this blog on June 24, 2009--just over seven years. And like all good things, it's time to bring this project to a close. It has served its purpose. We have close to 10,500 postings regarding fathers and child abuse, with hundred of those cases being enabled by the family courts, social services, and others in authority. The documentation is clear. It is now time to stop documenting and put that energy into changing the situation that puts thousands of mothers and children at risk every day.

Thursday, May 30, 2013

UNNAMED DAD.It is very uncommon for mothers to simply leave and abandon two-month-old babies. Nevertheless, the reporter fails to ask or pursue any follow-up questions.Did Daddy deliberately choose a mentally ill and/or addicted woman to impregnate so he could literally "grow your own victim"?Or was the mother driven from the home by violence or threats of violence? Do we even know if she is still alive or what happened to her? Of course not.

EDMONTON - They assigned the little girl the random name Baby Alison, and she was, a prosecutor told an Edmonton court, “the needle in a haystack ... a nameless child and could have been from anywhere in the world.”

But she wasn’t from just anywhere in the world. She was from Edmonton.

Pictures of her were found in 2010 in child pornography uncovered during an investigation in Europe. The National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, an American organization, identified several Internet images and videos of the same infant girl they believed were produced in Canada. Ottawa investigators then took over, and by May 2012, 109 pictures and 13 videos of the child had been discovered. They also identified an unknown man with a heavy build and round face in some of the images.

The pornography was traced to the Edmonton area and the northern Alberta Integrated Child Exploitation Unit took over the investigation, though Baby Alison’s identity was still a mystery.

Crown prosecutor Cheryl Schlecker told court that investigators identified an Edmonton business pamphlet in the videos, as well as a local Capital Health logo. In some of the pornography, the child wore a white helmet used in medical procedures. That led police to the Stollery Children’s Hospital, where a staff member identified the girl as a former patient from 2007.

In May 2012, police investigated the family and visited the unkempt house where the girl lived with her father, uncle and grandmother. Officers noted her father fit the description of the man in some of the images. Items in the house also matched those that appeared in the background of the videos.

The father and his brother, the girl’s uncle, were both arrested.

The 34-year-old father pleaded guilty to the sexual touching of a person under sixteen and the creation, distribution and ownership of child pornography. The uncle’s case is still before the courts.

Schlecker asked the court Wednesday to impose a sentence of 11 to 12 years.

“This breach of trust that he inflicted on his biological daughter was the most extreme betrayal,” Schlecker said. “It is one of the most extreme breaches and betrayals a father can perpetuate against his daughter.”

On computers and electronics seized in her father’s home, sexual videos and pictures of the girl were found. In some of the photos, the girl was dressed in a pink dress and blond wig, “like a doll,” Schlecker said. In one of the videos, the girl softly calls out, “Dada.”

There were also 174 images of child pornography involving other victims from the Internet.

Schlecker told court the abuse began when the girl was three to six months old.

As his crimes were discussed, the father sat motionless in court in an orange prison jumpsuit.

Defence lawyer Mona Duckett made a submission for a sentence of seven to nine years.
Schlecker said the father allowed his brother access to his daughter even after he walked in on an alleged sexual assault when she was only a few months old.

“He did not go to police or take steps to protect his daughter. He allowed his brother to use her as a sexual plaything. He didn’t see any harm in it.”

Later, court heard, the father sexually abused the girl himself.

“Is there any chance that this doesn’t have to be, like, known?” The father asked police during a statement. “Is there anyway that this can be kept quiet?”

The girl’s mother left the family when her daughter was two months old.

BALTIMORE (AP) - A Maryland mother is suing more than 200 people who she says had child pornography depicting her two young daughters.

The woman filed a lawsuit Tuesday in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore. It says that in 2008 the girls, then 4 and 6, were forced to engage in sexual acts with their father. The lawsuit says the girls' father and another man produced images and video to gain entry into a group of individuals who trade child pornography.

The children's father and a co-defendant have pleaded guilty to federal charges relating to the production of pornography and are serving decades in prison.

The girls' mother, who goes by Jane Doe in the complaint, is seeking millions of dollars. The lawsuit names 84 individuals and 182 others as "John Doe."

Hilt submitted a lengthy letter to Judge Brad Zell before Thursday’s hearing, which helped convince Zell he had “genuine remorse” for his behavior.

“It’s too bad you weren’t so concerned a year or two ago,” Zell said.

The judge said Hilt’s daughter was lucky because she was expected to make a full recovery.

Hilt was charged with child abuse in 2006 for an assault on his eldest child, but apparently improved for a time before the most recent incident.

“I’m not saying that 24/7, 365 days a year, you were abusive,” Zell said. “I don’t think the evidence shows that. But there were times when you were, and in those moments with your children, you were very dangerous.”

Hilt had been using synthetic marijuana in the hours leading up to his 3-month-old daughter’s collapse on March 2, 2012. He called 911 and was guided through the process of resuscitating the infant before she was admitted to Sanford Hospital for bleeding on the brain.

The child fell from a changing table a few days before the call. Hilt admitted, however, that he had been rough with the child, saying he’d been stressed out and frustrated.

He initially was charged with aggravated assault and felony child abuse. He almost took the case to trial, disputing the extent of the injuries his actions had caused. Hilt pleaded guilty to the reduced charge of child abuse April 2.

His lawyer, Mike Miller of the Minnehaha County Public Defender’s Office, told Judge Zell that his client’s perspective had changed markedly since he first arrived in jail. The loss of his wife of 10 years, the reality that the state is seeking to permanently terminate his parental rights and the loss of his job and home were all factors in that, Miller said.

“This has been a rock bottom point for him,” Miller said. “He’s lost literally everything that he had.”

Zell gave Hilt a 10-year sentence with five suspended and credit for time served. Hilt would be eligible for parole in just under two years.

Devon sex abuse father jailed for 22 years
A father who subjected two children to a decade of sexual abuse has been jailed for 22 years.

The man, 68, who cannot be named for legal reasons, groomed his son and stepdaughter from the ages of seven and four, the court heard. He was convicted of 15 charges, including two rapes.

Exeter Crown Court heard he terrified them with his drunken violent temper so much they stayed silent for 40 years.

The judge said it was one of the worst child abuse cases he had encountered.

The man committed the abuse while living in the Teignbridge area in the 1970s.

Cigarette packet code

During a week-long trial the jury heard how he made the two children sit naked on either side of his armchair while he forced them to touch him.

The court heard he groomed them by asking them to massage his sore back but then made ever increasing sexual demands.

He devised a code in which he left instructions to his stepdaughter in a cigarette packet detailing what sexual services he wanted her to perform.

The man had denied two rapes, another serious sexual offence, and six offences of indecency with the girl dating from the ages of four to 14. He had also denied six offences of indecency with his own son when the boy was aged between seven and 14.

He was found guilty of all counts and jailed for a total of 22 years, 15 years for his abuse of the girl and seven years for the abuse of the boy.

Judge Phillip Wassall said:"You began a serial and serious abuse of these two children.

"This is one of the worst cases of its sort I have ever seen. It was a dreadful catalogue of abuse which has had a significant effect on the victims."

Referring to one occasion on which the man had "interfered" with the children, the judge said: "In you own defence you said you did this on the instructions of a doctor. It was an extraordinary suggestion which I reject completely."

Dad PAUL NAYLOR is obviously custodial, though the point is not made explicitly. There is no mention of the mother anywhere, though later there is mention of Daddy's pothead girlfriend. The kids are now in "state custody," which suggests that Mom may be dead, "disappeared" or otherwise "unavailable."Notice that this isn't just a case of a dirty house. There is also evidence that this father physically abused the kids and made death threats. That "should" make the authorities consider the question of what happened to the mother. It's no secret that abusers are unusually successful at gaining and maintaining custody/control of the kids and eliminating the mother through any number of means. Was a family court or child protection services involved in this situation? Who knows. No explanation here.

Whisper Oaks Lane is a place filled with kids and families. They play together, go to school together and know each other well. Most of the neighbors say they knew the 9-year-old and 3-year-old sisters were living in filthy conditions.

"Every time she'd come over she'd always smell like animals and she would always be real dirty," Fields said.

"The house smelled bad, and we felt something was going on funny there," friend John Young said.

Troopers searched the home and found dogs, animal waste, roaches, marijuana, drug items and prescription pill bottles. A toilet and hot water tank didn't even work.

State Police say Naylor told them the children had not been bathed in two days. When they searched, troopers say they never did find any soap or cleaning supplies. Instead, troopers found flies, a tub they say was unusable and a unbearable smell.

"They'll get what's coming to them you know for doing that to their kids," Fields said.

The children were taken to the hospital. They are safe and now in state custody.

Naylor was arrested. Police say his girlfriend, Kimberly Anderson, showed up high on drugs. She admitted she had been smoking marijuana, according to the criminal complaint.

Neighbors say now those children can escape from a place they say no one should have to call home.

ROCK HILL, SC — A Charlotte father was charged with cruelty to children after police say he choked his teenage son to the point the boy vomited in a Rock Hill park on Saturday.

Police were sent to Cherry Park at about 12 p.m. after a caller said she saw a man choke a child who later threw up before they left the park in a silver Pathfinder, according to a Rock Hill police report. Police saw the car traveling on Cherry Road and stopped the driver, identified as Robert Edward Boyd, 49.

A boy, 13, sat in the backseat crying as Boyd admitted that he lost his temper and then lost control, the report states. Officers spoke with the boy, who said his parents had been arguing so he stepped in between them. That's when his father grabbed his shirt collar “and squeezed,” the report states. He said his father wasn't trying to hurt him, although his neck was red.

A witness told police that Boyd placed his hands around the boy's neck and his face began changing color, the report states. She said the boy's mother had to make her husband stop. She said she watched as the boy got in the car but stepped out to vomit.

The mother told police that Boyd never meant to hurt their son but was trying to discipline him, the report states. Boyd and the mother both said the boy was forcefully, but accidentally, pushed into a fence.

Police arrested Boyd, who said he had never hurt his son before, the report states.

Contrary to the weird claims of the FR folks, batterers and child abusers are one and the same. The same f***er who has no problem gunning down his wife has no problem abandoning a 2-year-old child in her crib. Daddy is identified as RANDOLPH MAIDENS.

New details emerged this week during a preliminary hearing for a Tennessee man accused of shooting dead his 34-year-old wife in the family home while his two-year-old child was left alone upstairs in a crib.

The court heard that Randolph Maidens, 42, fled his Brentwood home on April 21st, leaving behind his dead wife Dr. Rachael Maidens, a confessional note on the kitchen counter, a shotgun on the couch, a car trunk stuffed with $87,200 and his young daughter who told responding officers, 'Daddy gone!'

A coroner's report indicates that the orthodontist was found on the ground floor of the couple's home and died from multiple gunshot wounds said Lt. John Wood of the Brentwood Police Department.

Police rushed to the plush home after a request by Dr. Maidens mother to check on her daughter after she suspected that Maidens might cause harm to his wife and daughter.

The court heard how police could not raise anyone by knocking the door, so entered the property through an unlocked garage door and after announcing they were in the home heard a young child announce, 'I'm here.'

The young child told officers that her father was gone and then were presented with the shocking sight of Dr. Maidens body wrapped in a blanket in a hallway close to the living room.

A shotgun was rested up against the couch and a note nearby 'expressing regret for what happened' and asking for custody of the child to go to Dr. Maiden's mother.

Officers also discovered $87,200 in his 2013 Infinit parked inside the home garage, including two Fed Ex envelopes filled with cash in a fireproof safe.

While an extensive manhunt could not locate Maidens, he walked back into his home with his hands above his head at around 6 a.m. on April 22nd.

Bail was set at $750,000, lowered from its original $2.5 million but District Attorney General Kim Helper argued at the time for the amount to be higher.

This was because Maidens got into an altercation with three men during a conference he attended in Orlando, Florida earlier in the year - before he became unemployed.

Witnesses who heard the argument allege that Maidens made statements in which he admitted wanting to kill his wife.

However, Maidens' attorney, David Raybin, said that his client showed no intention of fleeing as his passport was in his desk drawer and pointed to the fact he surrendered himself freely.

On the evening of the murder, Brentwood police, helped by a SWAT Team, a K-9 unit and helicopters, launched an overnight manhunt for Maidens and put the gated community on lockdown as they searched the area.

Maidens eventually walked out of the woods behind the back of his house and was taken into custody without incident at 6 am on Monday, ABC News reported.

At the time one neighbor described how she witnessed Maidens acting bizarrely three weeks before the shooting.

'I saw him running through the woods behind our house, and he a had on a black ski mask and a backpack that looked like a quiver,' the neighbor told WKRN-TV.

'It was daytime and he was running through the woods... and down to the ravine, right past our house, and I followed him and he laid down in the ravine and pulled off the ski mask.'

When she asked him what he was doing, 'he made some kind of statement that made no sense' before adding, 'Well, I was walking my dogs, I got lost', she said.

Maidens appeared before a Williamson County magistrate judge In April and was charged with homicide in the death of his wife, the Williamson County Sheriff's Department told ABC News.

He has no criminal record but on February 23, he was arrested for driving under the influence and refusing to take a Breathalyzer test, records show.

He was released on $1,500 cash bond and will appear in court on May 29 at 9 a.m. for the charge.

'I think to say just how sorry I am and I'm going to miss coming to the office and seeing her,' former patient Cindy Bayer toldNews Channel 5. 'She always had a smile and was always friendly. She obviously enjoyed what she did, so it's a shame that her life's work is gone.'

Mrs Maidens, who grew up in Brentwood, met her husband while practicing in Atlanta for three years.

Dad is identified as JAMES LAMAR WOODS. As sometimes happens in these cases, Mom is getting trashed for being an "accessory"--a fancy term that means she "failed" to stop a crazed enraged male from doing violence to an infant. This assumes, of course, that it is possible for an average woman to stop one of these freaks. As a point of fact, "accessory" crimes are most often leveled at mothers. Fathers are very seldom held responsible for "failing" to stop an abusive mother, even though in most cases they would be more likely to have the physical means of doing so.

A man wanted on a child abuse charge connected to burns found on his baby has been taken into custody by the Farmville Police Department. James Lamar Woods was located on Brooks Drive at 4:30 p.m. on Saturday, a news release said.

He was arrested on outstanding warrants for negligent child abuse inflicting serious physical injury, intentional child abuse inflicting serious bodily injury and an outstanding order for arrest. He was jailed at the Pitt County Detention Center under a $102.000 bond.

Officers responded to Brooks Drive on Wednesday about 7:35 p.m. in reference to a report of a child being burned.

A 3-month-old baby was found with healing burns around the waist, the release said. The child was transported to Vidant Medical Center.

The baby’s mother, Whitley Everett, was arrested and charged with accessory after the fact of assault on a child. Woods, the child's father, could not be located.

Everett was jailed in the Pitt County Detention Center under a $5,000 secured bond.

ATTLEBORO, Mass. -
John Spangler is locked up after North Attleboro police accuse him of beating his 5 year old autistic son. The boy reportedly had bruises on several parts of his body.

Spangler is now being held on $500,000 bail after appearing in court Friday on charges including assault with a dangerous weapon, assault and battery on a child, and assault and battery on a person with an intellectual disability.

At his home, the mother of the boy told NBC10 Spangler needs help and that the children are ok.

The Attleboro Sun Chronicle reports Spangler has twice done jail time in the past few years for assault.

According to the paper, Spangler's lawyer in this case says he denies assaulting his son, instead claiming the boy hurt himself.

The Sun Chronicle also reports there are questions over whether the school the boy attends should have notified authorities after the boy once came to school with a black eye and with marks on his neck another time.

The infant’s 22-year-old mother called 911 at about 4:30 p.m. Saturday and said she had found her boyfriend, Tyler Deutsch, taking the baby out of the freezer in their home in the 7600 block of 320th Street South, near the city of Roy, Troyer said.

The child is believed to have been in the freezer for about an hour.

Deutsch told sheriff’s deputies he put the infant in the freezer to stop the girl from crying, Troyer said.

He was booked into the Pierce County Jail on a charge of suspicion of attempted murder. He has no criminal history.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

For Mom to have sent the police over for a safety check already tells us something. Once again we have a child forced into a custody/visitation scheme with a father who was obviously unsafe, but of course, the article here does not bring that out. So all we have is blather about "parents" being "pitted" against each other. Ridiculous. There was no "parental" conflict going here. What we was a violent father who gunned down and killed his son, and a mother who couldn't stop it. And why does the media continue to quote the Clueless Neighbors? So what if Dad seemed like a "nice guy." These killers seldom have matted hair or crazed eyes. New research shows that 91% of the fathers involved in murder-suicides involving their kids have histories of domestic violence.

Updated yesterday at 10:21
PM
Related:
Father kills son in apparent murder-suicide in River Ridge
Monica Hernandez / Eyewitness News

RIVER RIDGE, La. - A father is accused of murdering his teenage son and then turning the gun on himself. Authorities discovered the apparent murder-suicide Friday in River Ridge, and it has shaken a quiet community to its core.

“You've got to be shocked, you don't see anything like that around here. It just blows you away,” said neighbor Barry Innerarity.

“There was never a loud instance,” said neighbor Kent Shropshire. “I never heard a raised voice over there.”

But Jefferson Parish authorities discovered a darker side of the quiet house after a concerned mother asked them to check on her ex-husband and teenage son. Investigators found Matthew Tarto, 16, shot to death inside. Investigators believe he was deceased for some time before his father, Mark Tarto, 52, turned the gun on himself.

Neighbors say the father and son appeared to be close. They would see them outside together from time to time and they can't imagine why anyone would do something like this.

“I can't explain, I don't understand it. I don't know how someone could harm their own child. I'd take my life before I took one of my kid’s lives,” said Shropshire.

Tarto was a sophomore football player at John Curtis Christian High School nearby. There's already an outpouring of support from friends on Facebook.

“He's the kind of son every mother would hope for. He was a good boy, never gave a problem, always had a smile, and worked very diligently at his goals,” said J.T. Curtis, Tarto’s football coach.

Now a shocked community is left wondering why. One psychiatrist said various risk factors can lead to a tragedy like this.

“Risk factors include recent separations and divorces. They tend to be very aggressive in nature; they can pit parents against each other,” said Dr. Michael Blue.

As investigators try to find a motive, it's a tragic loss for a close-knit family in a quiet neighborhood.

Friday, May 24, 2013

This unfortunately so common. Mom is forced to work and earn a paycheck while the temperamental (often unemployed) father flips on the baby for "fussiness." Notice how even the police make excuses for him, and how Mom has lost custody even though she was trying to be responsible and keep a roof over everybody's head. Dad is identified as JAMES BLACKSTON.

HENDERSON CO, KY (WFIE) -
A Henderson father is accused of inflicting life threatening injuries on his seven month old son. James Blackston was arrested on Tuesday and he is facing an assault charge.

The Henderson Police Department says Blackston was left to care for his infant son and two or three other children while the mother was a work on Sunday, May 19th. Blackston allegedly became frustrated with his infant son's fussiness and he began to act irrationally. The infant's injuries were severe but, according to the police, he received immediate medical attention after his father brought him to St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, Indiana.

"I think that it's just one of those cases," said Jennifer Richmond, the Henderson Police Department's Public Information Officer. "He lost control but that is never an excuse. I am a parent myself."

The police say that they found other signs of physical abuse on the infant and that the other children are currently being cared for by Blackston's mother.

We've followed this case for two years. Convicted killer dad NAIM RASOOL MUHAMMAD has finally been sentenced to death for the murders of his two sons. http://texomashomepage.com/fulltext?nxd_id=278772Dallas County Jury Sentences Father Who Drowned Sons to Death

By: NBC DFW
Updated: May 24, 2013

A North Texas man was sentenced to death on Thursday for drowning his two young sons in a Dallas-area creek.

The Dallas County jury took about three and a half hours to sentence Naim Rasool Muhammad. The same jury took less than 10 minutes last week to find him guilty of capital murder in the deaths of 5-year-old Naim and 3-year-old Elijah.

"I apologize for bringing any pain and hurt on anybody for the actions that I have caused to you all," Muhammad said after the sentence was announced.

He said that the only reason he did it was because he wanted to be a father and thought that was being taken away.

Muhammad killed Naim and Elijah in August 2011. Authorities say he forced the boys and their mother, Kametra Sampson, into a car and started driving on what was supposed to be Naim's first day of school.

"You've shown that you have no boundaries, that nothing is sacred to you -- not even the bond between a father and son," Sampson said after the verdict was announced.

In closing arguments, prosecutor Tammy Kemp called Muhammad "a monster" and "100 percent pure evil." That angered Muhammad's mother, who stood up and shouted, "That is not a monster. He is my son." She bolted from the courtroom but could be heard shouting in the corridor outside as Kemp resumed her closing argument.

Um, yea. It really, really was, um, an accident, a terrible coincidence, that Daddy broke the ribs of the one infant son after the other was airlifted to a children's hospital coughing up blood. (That baby later died.) Yea, really. And I have a bridge I'd like to sell ya....Is UNNAMED DAD a single father? Notice the statemetnt about how this poor, frustrated daddy was just so"distraught" by the child and infant care that he was performing "24/7." Mothers would never get away with this excuse. It's just assumed that any woman should be able to take on these responsibilities and somehow manage without all the whining. What happened to the mother of these babies? Why was she apparently not in the home? It's as if the babies had been personally delivered to Daddy by the stork. Why do reporters continuously erase mothers from these stories, as if no one ever gave birth to these children? Is she alive, dead, "missing" or what?http://www.ottawacitizen.com/news/Grieving+father+intend+harm+infant+defence+argues/8420967/story.html

Grieving father did not intend to harm infant son, defence argues

By Chloé Fedio, OTTAWA CITIZEN May 22, 2013

OTTAWA — A young father in mourning over the death of one twin son became so overwhelmed after the second twin was airlifted to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario that he squeezed the crying baby out of stress and broke his ribs, a Crown prosecutor argued at the man’s assault trial.

“(The man’s) frustration at that time and his depression and grieving over his other child became too much,” Donna Eastwood argued during closing statements in an Ottawa courtroom. “He could not cope. The baby was extremely irritable and difficult to settle.”

The man, 25, cannot be named due to a publication ban meant to protect the identity of his son. He has pleaded not guilty to two counts of assault causing bodily harm.

Despite the trial’s many witnesses — including a social worker, five nurses, a medical student, two experts and the accused who testified in his own defence — Adam argued that “we still don’t know exactly what happened.”

The Crown theorized that the baby’s 12 rib fractures were a result of being squeezed by his father on Jan. 29, 2011, and again two days later on Jan. 31 while the child was in hospital.

A nurse testified she heard the “high-pitched cry of a child” twice on Jan. 29 while his father was holding him. But Adam pointed out that she did not chart concerns, report abuse or notice that the child had any injuries afterward.

Further, experts did not say conclusively that the ribs were fractured on two separate occasions — just that the fractures were believed to have occurred between Jan. 25 and Feb. 3, Adam said. He also argued that experts testified the injuries were not necessarily caused by squeezing.

The father testified that on one occasion, the infant slipped out of his grasp and he lunged forward to grab him mid-air. On a second occasion, he said the boy suffered an apneic spell and that he administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation while he called out for a nurse to help. The “inexperienced, panicked father” used his palm, which could have crushed the ribs, Adam argued.

“He had already lost one son and was terrified to lose another,” Adam argued. “His evidence is, he felt he had to do it to save his son.”

But Eastwood pointed out that the nurse who entered the room did not see the man administer CPR. The nurse rubbed the baby’s back until breathing resumed.

The man’s “false story,” Eastwood argued, “ought not to be believed.”

Eastwood also argued that “it’s not realistic” that the man would have dropped his son because he “has lots of experience holding children.”

The man had been caring for “four children in diapers” when his five-week-old infant son died, Eastwood said.

“He’s essentially looking after those children 24/7 without a break,” she said.

Just 12 days later, the second twin was airlifted to CHEO from the Kashechewan First Nation near James Bay after coughing up blood.

Eastwood argued that the grieving father was “distressed, distraught and angry” during his time at CHEO, especially because there were rumours in his community that he had somehow contributed to his son’s death.

“Surely, it has to be more than a coincidence” that he intentionally applied force on two separate occasions, Eastwood said.

Adam countered that there’s an “air of reality” to the man’s version, which does not amount to child abuse.

According to the Lafayette County Sheriff’s Office, deputies responded to a home on Linn Road in southwestern Lafayette County on May 17. An infant was reported to be unresponsive and was having trouble breathing.

The child was transported to St. Mary’s Hospital in Blue Springs were medical staff discovered the infant had sustained a number of injuries. She was then transferred to Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., where she died on May 20.

According to the Jackson County Medical Examiner who performed an autopsy, the infant suffered numerous broken bones, including a fractured skull, contusions and brain damage. Due to his findings, the medical examiner ruled the child’s death a homicide.

Gilbert’s father told FOX 4 his son would never harm a child and believes investigators are just looking for someone to blame.

EVERETT -- The April photo on his social media site shows a smiling young father with a baby cradled in his arms.

A month later, the Everett teen is in the Snohomish County Jail and his five-week-old daughter is at a Seattle Children's Hospital where she's being fed through tubes and is on anti-seizure medication.

She suffered a skull fracture, bleeding and swelling in her brain as well as two broken ribs, according to a police report.

An Everett detective wrote that the baby girl will be a long-term rehabilitation patient.

"The prognosis at this time is that she will likely have brain damage and vision impairment," the detective wrote Wednesday. "The extent of damage is unknown at this time."

Her dad, 18, was arrested Wednesday for investigation of first-degree assault of a child. He has not been formally charged.

Everett police spokesman Aaron Snell said the girl's mother appears not to have known anything about the alleged abuse.

"He is the only suspect based on what has been said and written," Snell said.

The Everett couple called 911 on Wednesday after the baby seemed lethargic and had trouble breathing. She was taken to Providence Regional Medical Center Everett before being transferred to Children's.

Doctors became suspicious of the parents' explanations for how the injuries occurred. They called state Child Protective Services and the Everett Police Department.

The suspect initially told authorities that he was holding the girl in a bedroom when she pushed her body up and hit her head against his chin. The mother said she had no idea how her child could have sustained a head injury.

In a follow up interview with a detective, the suspect allegedly admitted to getting angry when the baby was fussy and wouldn't stop crying.

"He described shaking (her) in vigorous, short, repetitive movements in an attempt to stop her fussiness," the detective wrote. "He described shaking her once or twice a week since she was two weeks old."

He allegedly said the baby began having problems after he shook her Wednesday.
"He also admitted to squeezing her forceful enough to break her ribs," the detective wrote.

"(He) said the impact to her head occurred when he inadvertently slammed the back of her head against the wall earlier in the week."

Keith Thibeault of Portland has been charged with one count felony murder and one count of child abuse in the first degree in the March 2012 death of his 3-month-old son, Everette. Trial began Monday with jury selection, opening statements and the first witness, Everette's mother, being called to the stand.

By Mattie Cook
Updated May. 20, 2013 @ 10:26 pm

Ionia, Mich. —
Keith Thibeault of Portland has been charged with one count of felony murder and one count of child abuse in the first degree in the March 2012 death of his 3-month-old son, Everette.
Thibeault's trial began Monday with jury selection, opening statements and the first witness, Everette's mother, being called to the stand.

Thibeault's trial is taking place in the Ionia County 8th Circuit Court with Chief Judge Suzanne Hoseth Kreeger presiding.
Jury selection began at 9 a.m. and lasted until just after noon.

Ionia County Prosecuting Attorney Ron Schafer explained the timeline of events leading up to the incident to jurors. Thibeault got off from work early on March 23, 2012, and picked up his twin sons, Everette and Keagan, from day care after 9 p.m. After getting home, he put the boys in bed and then at 4 a.m. woke to feed both sons. He placed both boys on the couch and when he looked away, Everette was on the floor. At 6:12 a.m., Thibeault called 911.

According to Schafer, the defendant's story has undergone many changes based on the audience.

The first responder to the 911 call was Thibeault's mother-in-law, who then informed Nicole Thibeault, her daughter, that Everette would be on his way to Sparrow Lansing Hospital. Nicole worked as a medical secretary at Sparrow Lansing Hospital.

After Everette arrived at Sparrow, a series of tests were conducted to determine the cause of his injury. Schafer argued that the medical experts assisting his case have posited that the injuries Everette had could have been caused by shaking or slamming his head against a soft surface. According to Schafer, Everette died from inflicted, severe brain injury.

Along with questioning Keith Thibeault's interest in his child while at the hospital, Schafer reminded the jury that they are expected to determine the results of the case based on whether or not the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Schafer reminded the jury that reasonable doubt does not mean that it is beyond possibility, but rather that the decision should be based on reason and common sense.

"We are going to ask that you hold his (Everette's) father accountable for his actions," Schafer said to the jury.

THE DEFENSE

The opening statement provided by the defense was led by criminal defense attorney Kevin Peterson, who told the jury that it is important to get a second opinion, whether because of a medical issue or if on trial. According to Peterson, the issues at play in the trial are so complex that even respected medical experts cannot agree on the events.

Contrary to the insistent droning of the fathers rights people, daddies DEFINTELY and CONSISTENLY KILL for reasons related to power and control over their wives and children. And these efforts often often cloaked by custody/visitation "disputes."Check this out: the vast majority of family annihiator murders - 59 of the 71 - are committed by men. And that most of these murders take place on weekends, when fathers are provided with access via their custody/visitation rights. THIS IN NOT A MINOR OR MARGINAL PROBLEM, folks. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2328784/Why-fathers-killing-children-Top-criminologist-reveals-research-sickening-trend.htmlWhy ever more fathers are killing their children: Top criminologist reveals her research into this sickening trend

By Elizabeth Yardley

PUBLISHED: 18:39 EST, 21 May 2013 | UPDATED: 04:29 EST, 22 May 2013

His neighbours said he was like any other loving dad. They'd often seen him and his wife take their two children to the park, and they'd pop out to local restaurants for dinner together.

So why on earth did Julian Stevenson apparently brutally kill his own children? How could a father turn on his own flesh and blood and attack them so viciously?

The 48-year-old Briton has reportedly admitted cutting the throats of his two children — Matthew, ten, and Carla, five — after he was allowed to see them alone for the first time since his bitter divorce from their French mother.

After killing the children, Stevenson escaped his blood-splattered flat in Lyon, France, on a pair of rollerskates.

While I was as horrified as anyone else at the brutality of this killing, I have to admit that I wasn't in the least bit shocked.

As a criminologist specialising in murder, I have just completed research into the phenomenon of parents killing their children.

And my discoveries left me wondering not how it could happen — but just how soon it would be before another case of parental murder would hit the headlines.

Perhaps the most terrifying thing I have learned from my research is that the incidence of parents murdering their children is becomingly increasingly common. There have been 71 cases since 1980 - and the numbers are speeding up alarmingly.

In the Eighties, fewer than one child a year was murdered by a parent. Over the past decade, numbers have risen to two or three a year - a rate that is increasing steadily.

Though mothers are also capable of murdering their children, the vast majority of murders - 59 of the 71 - are committed by men. I call them Family Annihilators because they cold-bloodedly plot their family's destruction.

And the reason why these apparently normal, loving men turn into ruthless killers? Family breakdown, which, of course, is also on the increase.
Shortly before he took his children's lives his wife Ruth, 34, had told him she had feelings for a university lecturer and was leaving the marriage.
At the inquest into the deaths, she recalled how her husband stood in front of her on the last night they spent together, crying, holding his wedding ring and asking if he should take it with him.

I examined all of the cases of murders by parents of their children since 1980, looking at everything from the fathers' jobs to the day of the week they committed the murder — and uncovered some quite extraordinary patterns.

In seven out of ten cases, the children have been at the centre of a bitter family break-up.

Of course, I wouldn't for a minute suggest that divorce inevitably leads to murder.

Far from it.

However, what's extremely worrying is that there is a small minority of men who find it impossible to cope when their families break up.

These men come from all walks of life. They include doctors, businessmen, electricians, lorry drivers and security guards.

But they all seem to have one thing in common. They feel that their masculinity is being threatened.

In getting divorced, they believe they are losing the one thing that makes them feel like successful men: their families.

In murdering their children, they are, in some twisted way, wresting back control not just of their children, but often of their wives, too. Killing their children is the most shocking and dramatic way they can think of to shout to the world: 'Look how powerful I am.'

In murder, many are also seeking the ultimate revenge. They know that in killing their children they are killing the things that are most precious to their former wives.

Horrifically, many of these men leave notes at the scene, blaming their ex-wife for the tragedy. Some even add the extra twist of writing: 'I hope you will be happy now.'
In so many ways, then, the case of Julian Stevenson is very typical if he is eventually found guilty of the killings.

He was in the throes of a bitter custody battle with his French ex-wife, Stephanie. He had been banned from seeing his children alone after attacking her in 2010, so last weekend was his first unsupervised access visit with his children in three years.

There are two patterns that Family Annihilators follow — both equally dangerous for children.

The first scenario is that the parents are living together, but the family is fracturing, often because the husband or wife is having an affair. The father can't bear the thought of losing his children and is often raging at his wife, so he exacts the ultimate punishment.

In the second scenario — as in the Stevensons' case — the marriage is already over, the family has broken up and the children are living with the mother.

Far from satisfied with the outcome and filled with impotent rage, the father wants revenge.

I don't know about Stevenson's wife, but often the trigger is that the spouse is with a new partner or is pregnant. He may have been dreaming of a reconciliation: now he has to face the reality of losing his wife for ever.

In half of all cases of Family Annihilator, the murderer kills his former wife, too.

One of the most chilling examples is that of 53-year-old Brian Philcox, a security guard from Runcorn, Cheshire, who was in the middle of a bitter marriage breakdown. In June 2008, on Father's Day, he collected his children — Amy, seven, and Owen, three — and drove them to a remote beauty spot in Snowdonia, North Wales.
The funeral of Amy and Owen Philcox at All Saints Church in Daresbury in June 2008

After sedating them with drugs and makeshift chloroform masks, he joined them on the back seat of his Land Rover and waited for exhaust fumes to kill them all.

Meanwhile, he'd left a booby-trap bomb in his home, designed to explode when his ex-wife opened a note he had left addressed to 'The Bitch'. Luckily, it failed to explode.

For most parents, the thought of sitting down and plotting how we are going to take our children's lives isn't just abhorrent, it's simply unimaginable.

But that is exactly what these fathers do. They spend weeks — sometimes months — planning every gruesome detail.

And perhaps most frightening of all, they are able to do it all while keeping up a facade of normality. While they are plotting, no one guesses what's on their mind.

The terrifying truth is that these men are silent killers. In most cases, no one has seen the clues — not their wives, not their friends and not their families. Friends and neighbours often say they appear to be loving and devoted fathers.

Not surprisingly, perhaps, most murders occur between Friday and Sunday nights. I'm sure this is because weekends are commonly when estranged fathers get to see their children alone — giving them the opportunity to kill.

The way that Stevenson is alleged to have murdered his children — by slitting their throats — is horrifying in its violent brutality.

Incredibly, though, it's not rare. In fact, one of the most shocking things my research has uncovered is that one-third of men stab their children to death.

Stabbing usually occurs where the murderer is full of violent rage and anger and wants to damage his victim's appearance.

It's a violent way to kill, and a horrible way to die. But these men seem to want to inflict maximum damage on their children as a way of proving just how powerful they are — and as a means to inflict the maximum pain on their wives.

It appears that Stevenson was a violent alcoholic, with a record of attacking his wife. In this, he is uncommon. Fewer than 10 per cent of Family Annihilators have a record of domestic violence.

Even more frightening, perhaps, most have no record of mental illness. They have simply slipped beneath the radar.

But the most disturbing aspect of my research is that, as far as I can see, these parent-on-child killings are going to continue happening with increasing regularity. Marriages are going to continue breaking up. Fathers are going to continue feeling aggrieved and powerless.

And there is no way of predicting which men are going to carry on being loving fathers — and which are going to act on these feelings and turn into Family Annihilators.

* Dr Elizabeth Yardley is deputy director of the Centre for Applied Criminology at Birmingham City University.

Father, 24, branded a ‘monster’ is jailed for just SEVEN years after killing one-month-old baby
May 21, 2013 | by SWNS Reporter

Benjamin Roach was jailed for seven years for killing his month-old baby Roxie
A grieving mum branded her ex-lover a “monster” today after he was jailed for seven years for killing their one-month-old baby.

Benjamin Roach, 24, shook helpless Roxie Hopkins-Roach and threw her down so violently that she suffered severe brain injuries.

The heavily-tattooed dad claimed he merely dropped her – but experts said the tot’s wounds were similar to those seen in car crashes.

Anguished mum Kelly Hopkins, 23, was at Plymouth Crown Court in Devon to see Roach jailed for killing her “perfect angel”.

She said of his manslaughter conviction: “He is a monster. I hope he rots – I don’t think he has realised how much he has destroyed my life.”

Jurors at Roach’s trial heard Ms Hopkins left him to look after Roxie as she nipped to the supermarket on September 23, 2010.

When she got home minutes later she found paramedics at her door and her daughter fighting for her life inside.

Roxie’s life support machine was switched off the following day – less than a month after she was born on August 27.

The little girl suffered retinal haemorrhaging and bleeding within her skull and brain. Had she survived she would have been blind and brain damaged.

Jobless Roach first tried to pass off the mite’s wounds as being caused by a cold.

He later confessed to dropping Roxie on to a carpet – but claimed it was an accident and that he only shook her to try to revive her.

Doctors, however, told the court her injuries could not have been an accident and jurors convicted Roach of manslaughter.

Bernard Tetlow, defending, said Roach was a loving parent who would live with the “burden of guilt” for the rest of his life.

Jailing the dad for seven years, Judge Graham Cottle told Roach: “The injuries were described by one of the witnesses in the case as some of the worst he has seen.
Grieving mother Kelly Hopkins branded her former lover a ‘monster’ for killing their daughter.

“It was the injuries of a child being very violently shaken and deliberately thrown or dropped. Only you know what happened but ever since you have evaded the truth.

“Nearly three years have now gone by and you have continued to deny Kelly and others the opportunity to have some closure over Roxie’s death.

“You have been concerned only by covering your own self. Your response has been unforgivable.”

Ms Hopkins said the guilty verdict meant Roxie could now rest in peace.

She said: “It will be difficult for me to trust anyone again. I have not been able to move on with other relationships. He has never apologised to me.

“The justice I have fought for, finding the truth about what happened to Roxie, and knowing she is now in a better place, has been all I’ve wanted. And now I can finally say I have achieved it.”

HARTFORD — A Simsbury father pleaded guilty Monday to risk of injury to a minor for assaulting his infant son and was sentenced to five years in prison and five years of probation.

Christopher Berman, 29, pleaded guilty under the Alford doctrine, meaning he did not agree with the facts presented by prosecutors but pleaded guilty to take advantage of the plea agreement rather than risk going to trial.

Prosecutor Thomas Garcia told Judge Joan K. Alexander that on Sept. 9, 2012 Berman's 9-month-old son was left in his care while the baby's mother worked in Boston.

Berman became frustrated with the baby and bent the child's leg back toward his head, causing it to fracture. In a statement to Simsbury police, Berman said he was tired and trying to sleep, but the baby was keeping him awake. Angry, he grabbed the baby's right leg. "I bent his leg forward toward his head and heard a popping noise," Berman said.

Berman also faced charges for an earlier incident where he allegedly squeezed the baby, causing him to go into cardiac arrest. Doctors, however, disagreed about what happened and the state would have had a hard time proving its case at trial, Garcia said.

Alexander ordered Berman to have no contact with the child while on probation, to undergo mental health counseling and have no contact with children younger than 16

A young father is charged with shaking his baby and causing severe brain damage to the child.

By Heather Asiyanbi
May 20, 2013

A seven-month-old baby boy remains in an Illinois hospital after police say his father shook him and caused the baby's brain to swell.

Justin Gardner, 19, of Sturtevant, was charged Monday in Racine County Circuit Court with a single count of felony child abuse. If convicted, he faces up to 3-1/2 years in prison and/or up to $10,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, Gardner's seven-month-old baby was transported to the hospital on May 6 for possible seizures. Based on an emergency assessment of the baby's condition, he was then transported to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, Illinois. There, doctors diagnosed him with two separate brain bleeds.

At first, the baby's mother tried to explain the injuries were a result of the baby falling and hitting his head on a carpeted floor, but after interviewing Gardner, police determined the injuries were caused by being shaken, the complaint reads.

Part of the doctor's report included in the complaint against Gardner reads, "The extended timeline of bleeding is worrisome for abuse, over a duration of days, and the story of a fall off the chest a few inches does not seem to correlate with the findings.”

The boy's mother told police that Gardner sometimes "plays too rough" with the baby and that on several occasions he put the child in a bouncy seat and shook the seat to try and get the baby to stop crying, the complaint reads.

On May 5, Gardner reportedly told officers he could have inflicted Shaken Baby Syndrome when the baby wouldn't stop crying as Gardner tried to feed him rice cereal. The baby was in the bouncy seat at the time, the complaint confirms.

Police say that on May 6, the child's mother left the baby in Gardner's care while she took other children to the park. When she returned, the baby was limp and gasping for air.

Gardner says he propped the baby up in the bouncy seat with a bottle and went to take a shower, police say. When he got out of the shower, the baby was gasping for air and had stiff arms so Gardner ran to a downstairs apartment with the baby and called 911.

Gardner remains in the Racine County Jail on a $10,000 cash bond. His next court appearance is on May 29 for a preliminary hearing.

VIJAYAWADA: In a shocking incident, a man tried to kill his three-day-old baby girl at Wynchpet here on Saturday. As he did not want a girl child in his family, the father threw the baby on the ground and tried to strangle her with his legs.

Hearing the infant's cries her mother rushed in and shouted for help. The neighbours who gathered in strength thwarted the man's attempts to kill the baby and thrashed him before alerting the police. The baby was injured on her neck and was admitted to government hospital in the city.

The police, however, did not register a case against the accused identified as P Arjuna, who runs a snacks cart, after his wife Lakshmi withdrew the complaint under pressure from relatives.

Lakshmi had given birth to a baby girl three days ago much to the chagrin of P Arjuna. He had been quarrelling with his wife ever since the birth of the girl.

The quarrel turned violent when he threw the baby on the floor and tried to kill her. The neighbours rushed the infant to the government general hospital and alerted the police.

The police visited the spot and took Arjuna into custody. But police did not register a case against the accused as his wife withdrew the complaint under pressure from relatives.
The police let Arjuna, who runs a snack cart, go after a stern warning.

Once again, we see why collecting child support from sperm donors is a bad idea. This father had no commitment to this mother or the baby. He didn't want to provide any financial support for them, he just didn't give a sh**. These volatile teen fathers never bond with the babies, they just see them as a nuisance. Especially this one, who had threatened the mother. That's why they should NOT be provided with visitation. Why pretend they are real fathers?The result of providing dad JAMALL DECARLOS MATHIS with access is that he beat this baby to death. And this after apparently abusing the baby during an earlier visit. I wonder if there was a family court judge idiot behind all this, and who it was. Or whether Mom was just being nice and accommodating by letting Daddy see the baby when he asked. Once again we see the lies of the fathers rights people. Daddies don't kill because they're kept from their kids; they kill because they are GRANTED ACCESS TO THE KIDS.

Supreme court upholds dad's life sentence for beating 17-month-old boy to death

MAY 20, 2013

BY: KIMATHI LEWIS

The Supreme Court of Georgia upheld a man's murder conviction and life sentence for beating his 17-month-old son to death, officials said.

An 18-year-old Clayton County dad beat his 17-month-old son to death, possibly with a baseball bat, after refusing to provide financial support for the child and threatening the toddler’s mom.

Still, Mr. Jamall DeCarlos Mathis appealed to the Supreme Court of Georgia to overturn his murder conviction and life sentence, claiming the punishment was too harsh and that the evidence was insufficient.

But on Monday, the state’s highest court said it has denied his appeal — closing the door on Mr. Mathis’ last hope for freedom.

Mr. Mathis was 16-years-old when his girlfriend, Ms. Tiasha Jones, gave birth to their son, Ja ‘Mari Myckahi Jones, according to court records.But the teen was unhappy about the pregnancy and threatened to have someone hurt the woman.

He wasn’t there for the baby’s birth and after the boy was born, barely saw him and provided no financial support.

In May 2009, Ms. Jones began legal proceedings to gain child support from Mr. Mathis who asked her to drop the complaint, the records show. But she refused.

“Shortly before his death, Ja ‘Mari returned from one of his few visits to his father’s house with a swollen knee that caused him to limp,” according to the court records. “Mathis said the toddler “probably fell.”

In September, Mr. Mathis asked for another visit with Ja ‘Mari. But this time, when he arrived to pick up the child, the baby cried.

Around 11 p.m. on Sept. 15, Mr. Mathis, who was staying at his aunt’s with several family members including his mother, brother, sister and his sister’s baby, called Ms. Jones to tell her Ja ‘Mari had fallen off the bed and hit his head while sleeping with his mother and infant niece.

Around 9 a.m. on Sept. 16, Mr. Mathis yelled from the bedroom that Ja ‘Mari was not breathing. Paramedics arrived to find Ja ‘Mari unresponsive.

“One of the treating paramedics testified that on the way to the hospital, Ja ‘Mari’s skin was warm and dry, indicating his injuries were recent," the records show. "By the time they arrived at Southern Regional Hospital, the knot on the toddler’s head had swollen to the size of a softball, also indicating a recent injury.”

Expert medical witnesses testified they found “pattern injuries” to Ja ‘Mari’s chest and arm as well as a significant skull fracture extending “all the way to the base of the skull.”

Ms. Jones and her family took the baby off life support. A few days later, Mr. Mathis contacted Ms. Jones to ask if she was expecting an insurance check for Ja ‘Mari’s death. He also texted her saying he wished to have another child with her.

“At trial, the medical examiner said Ja ‘Mari’s injuries were consistent with having been struck on the head at least three times but “very likely” more than that,” according to the court records.

"Two baseball bats had been found in the house, and the baby’s head injuries were consistent with having been hit by a bat, but no physical evidence was introduced at trial directly linking the bats to the blows Ja ‘Mari suffered."

In November 2010, Mr. Mathis was convicted of felony murder, aggravated battery, cruelty to children and other crimes. He was sentenced to life without parole for the murder plus another 41 years in prison for the other crimes.

Durban - A KwaZulu-Natal father told a local court last week that he stabbed his 3-year-old son to death to punish the boy’s mother for having an affair.

Sibonelo Ndlela, 25, said he repeatedly stabbed his son, Ayabongwa, even as the child lay screaming and crying on the bed, begging his father to stop, reported the Daily News.

Ndela made a statement to court in which he said he had two children with his girlfriend Samkelisiwe Ngubane - Ayabongwa and a 4-year-old daughter.

“Ngubane and I had a stormy relationship and I suspected her of cheating on me. On the morning of 1 May we were in town in Pietermaritzburg, when she admitted to cheating on me because I was a drunkard,” Ndlela said.

Ngubane apparently told him to leave her alone and said she wanted to meet her new lover.

Angry

Ndella then went drinking and later in the evening went home to see if she had returned.

"I put Ayabongwa to bed and called Ngubane’s cellphone. An unknown man answered and hung up. I began to brood over her fickleness and more I festered over her infidelity, the angrier I became,” Ndlela said.

He then decided to kill Ayabongwa in order to hurt her.

“I wanted her to feel the same pain as me and I concluded that the only way to accomplish this was to kill her son,” said Ndlela.

Ndlela said that he started stabbing the sleeping boy, and continued even as the child woke up screaming, stabbing him until he became quiet.

The Witness reported that acting judge Piet Bezuidenhout will hear submissions before sentencing on 1 July, when a State advocate is expected to present victim impact statements, detailing the consequences of the murder on the family.

LOWELL — Prosecutors say a 2-month-old Lowell baby allegedly shaken by his father has died.

The Middlesex district attorney's office says William Berry was taken off life support and died Friday at Tufts Floating Hospital for Children in Boston.

An autopsy has been performed and could result in additional charges against the father, 22-year-old Christopher Berry.

Prosecutors allege he shook the baby boy on May 11 causing catastrophic brain injuries. He pleaded guilty last week to assault and battery on a child causing substantial bodily injury. He is being held on $500,000 bail.

Berry's attorney says his client has post-traumatic stress disorder after serving a year in Afghanistan and has been receiving medication and counseling.

A British father accused of killing his son and daughter by slitting their throats was today named by French police.

Julian Stevenson is due to appear in court in Lyon where a formal investigation into the murders was opened. It is alleged he has admitted cutting his children’s throats because of a bitter custody battle with his ex-wife.

He is said to have carried out the double murder at the family’s former apartment in the Saint-Priest suburb of Lyon, eastern France, before fleeing the scene on a pair of roller-skates.

Mr Stevenson was arrested on Saturday night, just hours after his ex-wife discovered the bodies of son Matthew, ten, and five-year-old daughter Carla.

This weekend was the first time Mr Stevenson had been allowed custody of the children since the couple divorced in 2010, a judicial source said.

But when he failed to return the children to their mother’s home as planned, she went to his house and saw him looking ‘panicked and angry’.

‘He was in the stairwell of the apartment block, and his clothes were covered in blood,’ said a neighbour. ‘He made off on a pair of roller-skates, leaving his car in the apartment block’s garage.’

The mother, who is French, spoke with prosecutors yesterday to provide them with details of her troubled five-year marriage to Mr Stevenson.

It is claimed the 47-year-old was a heavy drinker and had attacked his ex-wife in 2010, leading to his rights of access to the children being withdrawn.

His ex-wife, an accountant’s assistant, had won custody of the children after that incident and went to live in the Isere region of France, which is just to the south of Lyon and an easy drive or train journey away.

Until this weekend, it is claimed Mr Stevenson had only been allowed supervised access to his children.

Investigators will want to know who gave the father legal authority to care for his son and daughter.

Neighbours of the out-of-work father said the apartment block had been under police guard since details of the tragedy first emerged. A sign across the door contained the single word ‘homicide’, as forensic investigators combed the home for clues.

‘We’ve been told to keep away,’ said one neighbour, who did not to be named. ‘We used to see the man come and go, but until this weekend we hadn’t seen him with his children for years.

‘They suddenly turned up out of the blue, and then this. It is deeply shocking. We are all traumatised.’

Other local residents said the man was often seen at nearby shops and bars, and was well known for his ‘British accent’.

A neighbour who socialised with Mr Stevenson before his divorce said: ‘He and his wife used to be like any other young couple – they took the children to the park, they went out for dinner.

‘That all changed with the divorce, however – it was clearly very messy.’

According to a judicial source a knife, thought to be the murder weapon, was found at the flat.

The source said the alleged double murder was ‘clearly linked to a painful separation’ and ‘legal procedures concerning the right to access to the children which the father deemed insufficient.’

A Foreign Office spokesman said the matter was being investigated. ‘We are in touch with the French authorities and await the outcome of their investigation. We stand ready to provide consular assistance,’ he said.